Film Review: UNDEAD (2003)

 UNDEAD (2003) Australia 1hr 44mins

Directors: Michael and Peter Spierig

"Aunt Aggie has the keys (to the truck) but she doesn't have a brain." - Wayne.

"When I was a kid we respected our parents...we didn't fuckin' eat them!" - Harrison.

"Jesus Christ...can I get a cup of tea with this fruit cake??!!!" - Wayne.

Before the sibling directorial duo brought us movies like DAYBREAKERS (2009), JIGSAW (2017) and WINCHESTER (2018), the Spierig brothers gave us supernatural, splattery zombiness with UNDEAD (2003).

The quaint fishing town of Berkley, Australia gets hit by a meteor shower, all those exposed to the space rocks turn into flesh eating zombies. Only a few survivors make it and take refuge in the local town crazies farm house to make a stand. Town beauty queen (known as the Fish Queen) Rènè Chaplin (Felicity Mason), Wayne (Rob Jenkins), his pregnant girlfriend Sallyanne (Lisa Cunningham) and two of the town cops, Harrison (Dirk Hunter) and Molly (Emma Randall) bust into quiet loner and misunderstood weirdo, Marion's (Mungo McKay) house kind of by accident but they seem to have been lucky in doing this as Marion seems to know a little more about what is going on then they do. To be honest it's a helpful coincidence (to them) that they ended up there as Marion has an underground shelter plus he is a total badass when it comes to fighting zombies. Despite all this though they soon get overrun and decide to bail... that's when things get really weird!!

Part alien, part zombie movie, UNDEAD (2003) has all kinds of crazy, splattery and gory detail with the added bonus of some insane weaponry. It is low budget and awkwardly acted but it is tons of fun, much like the movies it pays tribute to. We're talking BRAINDEAD (1992), all three of Sam Raimi's EVIL DEAD movies with a bit of BAD TASTE (1987) thrown in for good measure. UNDEAD (2003) really doesn't make much sense when it comes to plot but no one really cares about that, it all becomes clearer by the finale. It's all about the gory practical FX, hilarious weapons and the zombies.

Let us start with the zombies shall we? They look like a mash up of Romero's walking dead and Raimi's deadites, which is a good start. Movement wise they shamble and groan à la Romero. Visually they have the pearly white eyes and pronounced eye sockets and cheek bones that I associate with deadites. They take a real beating from the survivors (until they learn to take them down with headshots) but that doesn't slow them down. The zombies bounce back quickly and horde en masse. Turned by the meteorites, some get hit by the falling rocks which makes for some great visuals. There are plenty of them and I love the nods to the zombies of old with the slow walking, arms out and the groaning. Mumbles of "brains" and whispers of "join us" and other short phrases were a great touch. The FX and pacing are another strong point with great detail from start to finish, some are really quite surprising and very effective. The fragments of meteorites crushing heads and punching holes through people is great. The zombies gut munching, putting fingers into eye sockets, ripping people apart and carrying around various body parts with them is gory and bloody. For the kills there are some inventive weapons. The double and triple shotguns are hilarious but the melee weapons are key. Pretty much everything is a weapon and it's all about being as messy as possible. There is a great zombie kill with something that looks like a litter picker and a bloody scene involving a broom handle and saw blade attachment. Another great weapon is the tried and tested shovel that does some brilliant decapitating.

When it comes to the plot and characters things do get a bit ropey but it is all part of UNDEAD's charm. The acting is wooden, there are a lot of amateur dramatics and over the top acting with many an awkward pause or two but once you're about 20 minutes into it, it gets funnier. Some things are not really explained though like Waynes career before the apocalypse which would have been helpful. I did discover that this and a couple of other parts of the plot were clearer in the original cut which had a runtime of 1hr 55mins but the US version cut some essential storyline to cut the runtime down. Mungo McKay as Marion and Rob Jenkins as Wayne are the more quirky characters, with the best dialogue and on the whole very funny. Dirk Hunter as Harrison being incredibly over the top. The rest of the cast are unfortunately rather forgettable zombie fodder but still mostly entertaining. The plot of UNDEAD (2003) is wacky as only an Aussie indie flick can be. It starts off as a fairly standard zombie scenario sparked off by the meteor shower but as the movie progresses the alien element begins to creep in, at first I found it all a bit weird but had fully embraced it by the end. The weather elements like the odd cloud storms, ominous gas floating about and the acid rain certainly make things a bit more interesting. The random lights, people getting beamed up skyward and the hooded figures are a bit of a mystery and more of a weird unexplained side story but it all becomes clear by the end, which stills manages to hold a few surprises, even when you think you have it sussed. 

UNDEAD (2003) is a great low budget zombie comedy and at it's time of release became very popular on it's run of the film festival circuit. It's not too hard to follow, it's action packed, fast paced and is abundant in zombies, great for fans of the genre. I score UNDEAD (2003) 3.5 brains out of 5. UNDEAD (2003) is currently showing on Shudder (in the UK) and is available on Blu Ray, DVD and VHS!!